A consortium of the UK’s largest and most successful scientific and academic institutions has laid out its plans for the biggest centre for biomedical research and innovation in Europe. The UK Centre for Medical Research and Innovation (UKCMRI), founded by the Medical Research Council (MRC), Cancer Research UK, the Wellcome Trust and UCL (University College London) has released its vision for the institute alongside designs for the building. It will be based at St Pancras and Somers Town in the London Borough of Camden. The project represents a substantial investment from charity and public funders in the future growth of one of the UK’s leading sectors.

The Vision was drafted by a panel of leading international scientists who came together to conceive of an institute capable of tackling the underlying causes of our most challenging health problems. They were advised by experts from Oxford, Cambridge, Yale, Harvard, the US National Institutes of Health and other world-renowned institutions, as well as leaders from the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries.

The building, planned by a team led by the architects HOK working with PLP Architecture, is designed to foster innovation by allowing collaboration between different academic disciplines. The chairman of the Scientific Planning Committee – the Nobel Laureate and President of Rockefeller University, New York and incoming President of the Royal Society – Sir Paul Nurse, explained: UKCMRI aims to break down the traditional barriers between different research teams and different disciplines, thereby encouraging biologists, clinician scientists, chemists, physicists, mathematicians, and computer scientists to work together to answer shared questions. With 1250 scientists working with an encompassing infrastructure, UKCMRI will provide the critical mass, support and unique environment to tackle difficult research questions.

The institute’s scientific vigour will be maintained by the continuous renewal of research interests and skills – a strategy at the core of the UKCMRI vision. Most of the research groups at UKCMRI will be led by researchers fresh from a period of postdoctoral research. The institute's research funding, its interactive and interdisciplinary environment, and its cutting-edge scientific infrastructure will allow scientists to tackle ambitious and long-term research questions. These researchers will develop a prominent international scientific profile during a 10-12 year stay at UKCMRI, after which the majority will move on to leadership positions in this country and elsewhere, thereby fulfilling UKCMRI's key role to propagate and disperse scientists of the highest calibre throughout the UK. The institute's cadre of established international research leaders will provide continuity and a science-led operational culture.

Art collector Charles Saatchi is gifting more than 200 works and his Saatchi Gallery to the British public, it has been announced.

The artworks, including Tracey Emin's My Bed and Chapman brothers works, are worth more than £25m ($37.7m).

The 70,000 sq ft Saatchi Gallery in Chelsea, owned by Cadogan Estate, will become the Museum of Contemporary Art for London (Moca London).

The museum will meet all costs and "no charges will fall to the state".

The gallery's management are in talks with the government to find a department "which would own the works on behalf of the nation".

The gallery said in a statement that Saatchi felt it was "vital for the museum always to be able to display a living and evolving collection of work, rather than an archive of art history".

It said the gift would ensure that, when Saatchi retired, Moca would have "a strong, rotating permanent collection of major installations".

Moca will be free to display the works at all times as well as to lend them to other institutions.

'Actively involved'

Tracey Emin said she was thrilled by Saatchi's donation and wished "more people had that kind of vision".

A permanent collection of works by high-profile British artists, including Emin, forms part of Saatchi's gift.

It includes Richard Wilson's Oil Room installation which is currently on display at the gallery.

It also includes Tragic Anatomies, by Jake and Dinos Chapman, which features mutated mannequins in a garden, and an installation by Emily Prince made up of thousands of drawings of US military personnel killed in Afghanistan and Iraq.

A wall of bones which form the text of a Gandhi speech - by Indian artist Jitish Kallat - and French-Algerian artist Kader Attia's room of life-sized praying figures made from aluminium foil also form part of the collection.

Further gifted pieces which do not form part of the permanent collection could be sold by Moca to raise cash for new works.

New acquisitions will be added to the foundation's holdings, enabling the museum "to remain actively involved in the newest developments in contemporary art".

The gallery's managers say they will make sure free entrance continues by raising money from sponsorship and hosting events, and using revenues from its facilities.

Turner Prize winner Grayson Perry, whose pieces are among works gifted, said: "This is fantastic news - I'm very proud to be part of another national institution."

Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt said: "Charles Saatchi has built up a collection of huge international importance.

"His decision to gift these works to the nation is an act of incredible generosity and I'd like to thank him on behalf of the government.

"Philanthropy is central to our vision of a thriving cultural sector and this is an outstanding example of how Britain can benefit from individual acts of social responsibility."

A £1.5bn plan to regenerate a traffic-choked area of south London has been approved.

Southwark Council has given the go-ahead to transform a 170-acre site of Elephant and Castle, in a project which will take 15 years.

The area's red shopping centre may be demolished and the gyratory road system re-routed.

It will also mean the demolition of the Heygate Estate to create about 5,300 new homes, shops, and public spaces.

The area has good transport links, is close to the City and the West End and is within walking distance of 11 Thames river crossings.

But the council feels its development has been stifled by its post-war layout, with its six-lane roundabout, high-rise flats and a shopping centre which has been nominated as London's ugliest building.

The developer and owners of the shopping centre will discuss its future.

Councillor Peter John, Leader of Southwark Council, said: "I am delighted that we have come to an agreement with Lend Lease that will transform the Elephant and Castle over the next 15 years to create a new and exciting destination for London.

"This agreement will mean the centre of this great world city will be pulled further south in to Southwark, with the economic and social benefits that this will bring."

Last May, former US President Bill Clinton praised the redevelopment scheme as a global example for sustainable growth.

The Southwark revamp was named among 16 worldwide projects which will release less carbon dioxide than they use.

What type of building codes do they have in London? Seismic coefficients, snow loads etc...

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What type of building codes do they have in London? Seismic coefficients, snow loads etc...

Can't really answer that, but I don't think London has had any major sismic activity. They might use anti-seismic construction as a precaution or it may be compulsory by law to certain kind of buildings.

Many would-be development sites across London have seen height inflation over the last decade as the plans for them have got bigger - and taller. Another one of these is the proposals for Minaval House in the borough of Brent by Lidl UK, the supermarket chain.

The 0.48 hectare site sits near the Grand Union Canal and overlooks both Ealing Road and Bridgewater Road whilst the Piccadilly line Alperton train station also neighbours it on the northern side.

The scheme has gradually been scaled up over the past five years with the original application being a two-storey building of 2,500 square metres. This was followed by another planning application in October 2008 that added 70 apartments in addition to 2,300 square metres of commercial space although it failed to get planning permission from Brent Council.

The latest proposals have been designed by Boyesrees Architects reaching 11 storeys in height with 1,380 square metres of ground floor retail space, 1,145 square metres of flexible office space aimed at small businesses, and 55 apartments. There will also be spaces for 35 cars.

Overlooking the junction of Bridgewater Road and Ealing Road is the tallest element of the scheme acting as a gateway marker with the rest of the development stepping down in height from here. Decorating it are strongly angled lines, with a sheer vertical glass element exposed and angled to directly face the point at which the two roads it overlooks connects.

External balconies also add further detail, but on the opposing side of the scheme that faces the nearby railway there is little detailing - this is most definitely a building with a front and back although quite what the planning authorities make of such an approach remains to be seen.

Swedish furniture giant IKEA has made its first major foray into the UK property market by buying up a site next to the Olympic Park.

The purchase of the 13-acre Sugar House Lane site between the entrance to the park and Stratford High Street is part of a bid by Inter IKEA — the Swedish firm's investment arm — to launch its burgeoning residential business in the UK.

Yesterday, chancellor George Osborne rubberstamped a £438 million deal clearing the way for the post-Games redevelopment of the 500-acre site.

It gives control of the land to the new Olympic Park Legacy Company and wipes out a debt acquired by the London Development Agency in buying up the site.

The new IKEA site comprises a series of redundant industrial warehouses and has development potential for as many as 1500 homes.

The site is also expected to have several office blocks and warehousing aimed at the creative and film industries.

Although the company is a well-known name in the UK and appears on 18 stores across the country, the maturity of the retail market has kept it from creating IKEA-anchored developments in Britain.

In Europe, it develops and anchors large shopping malls, and has focused on building housing-led regeneration schemes that do not include a store but retain the “IKEA vision” of modern, simple design.

Sources told Estates Gazette that Inter IKEA is looking at a string of sites across the UK on which to expand its residential-led business.

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